Clock movement



' Dec. 25,1923. 1,478,759

W. E. PORTER CLOCK. MOVEMENT Filed March 1923 Patented Dec. 25, 1923.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILSON E. PORTER, OF NEW HAVEN. CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO NEW HAVEN CLOCK CO., OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION.

CLOCK MOVEMENT.

Application filed March 7, 1923.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILSON E. Ponrnn, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful. Improvement in Clock Movements; and I do hereby declare the following, when takenin connection with the accompanying drawings and the characters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description ofi, the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this application, and represent, in i Fig. 1 a view in front elevation of one form which a clock-movement embodying my invention may assume.

Fig. 2 a reverse plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 a broken, perspective view, showing the lower portions of the movement plates as mounted but stripped.

Fig. 4 a detached, perspective view of the removable bridge.

Fig. 5 a sectional View on the line 55 of Fig. 1. t

Fig. 6 a corresponding view with the bridge removed, and a spring-barrel unit drawn forward, preparatory to its removal, without demounting the plates.

My invention relates to an improvement in clock-movements, the object being to adapt the same at a low cost to have their spring-barrel units removed and replaced without demounting the movement-plates.

WVith these ends in view, my invention con sists in a clock-movement having certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In carrying out my invention, as herein shown, I have applied it to a chime-clock movement having a front movementplate 10 and a rear movement-plate 11, united in the customary manner by pillars 12. Between these plates are three removable spring-barrel units respectively employed for driving the time, strike and chime trains, none of which are shown, but which may be of any approved construction. The purpose of my invention is to provide for removing i and replacing these units, as may be required, without demounting the plates 10 and 11, and so disturbing the several trains of the movement. Each of these units consists, as shown, of a barrel 13, a mainwheel 14, an arbor 15, and a ratchet-wheel 16 hav- Serial No. 623,311.

ing, upon its inner face, a bearing-hub 17, and upon its outer face a bearing-hub 18. For the reception of the trunnion 19 at the inner end of each of the arb'ors 15, the rear movement-plate 11 is provided with three small bearing-holes 20 to complement which the front movement-plate 10 is formed with three keyhole slots having their circular inner ends 21, respectively, concentric with the said bearing-holes 20, the straight outer ends 22 of the said key-hole slots being wide enough for the passage through them, in either direction, of the outer ends of the arbors 15, as will be described hereinafter. The circular bearing-hubs 17 of the respecive ratchet-wheels 16 are adapted in diameter to have bearing in the circular portions 21 of the key-hole slots aforesaid.

To normally maintain the removable units in proper position, I employ a removable segmental bridge 23 secured by screws 24 to spacing-studs 25 in the front movement-plate 10, whereby a narrow space is formed between the said bridge and the plate for the reception of the ratchet-wheels 16, the circular bearing-hubs 18 of which enter and have bearing in bearing-holes 26 in the bridge, which is also perforated as at 27 for the reception of the screws 24, and has, as shown, a clearance-opening 28 which provides clearance for the stud 29 of the pawl 30 co-acting with the ratchet-wheel 16 of the intermediate spring-barrel unit, as shown in Fig. 1. Each of the main arbors 15 is formed with a spacingshoulder 31, upon which its ratchet 16 rests, thus providing a take-down space 32 between the main-wheels and the front movement-plate of suflicient depth to permit any unit to be pulled forward sufiiciently to disengage its trunnion 19 from its bearing-hole 20 in the rear movement-plate.

As an illustration of the use of my invention, it may be assumed that one of the three main springs has been broken, or has been otherwise deranged. Now, instead of demounting the entire movement, as would be necessary under ordinary circumstances, it is necessary only to remove the bridge 23, after which the unit requiring attention is pulled forward a distance represented by the space 32, whereby its position, as shown in Fig.5, is changed into the position in which it is shown in Fig. 6, in which latter the trunnion 19, at the rear end of the arbor 15,

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is seen to be disengaged from its bearinghole 20, in the rear movement-plate 11, and the bearingdiub 17, upon the inner face of the ratchet-wheel 16, disengaged from the circular portion 21 of the key-hole slot of the given unit. The unit is now free to be drawn laterally outward in the direction of the arrow 38, from its position between the two movement-plates, which are left entirely undisturbed. At this time, the shoulder 31 of the arborpasses outward through the straigl'it narrow portion 22 of the appropriate key-hole slot. Another way of removing the unit would be to first remove the brid e, then slip the ratchet-wheel off the squared end of the main-arbor of the unit and then lift the unit, so as to clear its trunnion 19 from the bearing-hole 20,v after which it may be drawn laterally from its position between the two movementplates. To return the unit, the reverse of thesteps above described must be taken.

I have illustrated my intention as applied to a chime clock having three spring-barrel units, and a single bridge to hold them in pl ce, as well as to provide support for the outer ends oftheir arbors, but my invention is equally applicable to clocks having only one or two spring barrel units, in which case thebridg'es would be correspondingly altered without any change in principle, my invention being particularly characterized by the en'iployment of a removable bridge, which not only provides a support and bearing for the outer end of the arbor of 'a removable spring-barrel unit, but also serves to hold the spring-barrel unit againstendwise displacement. My invention is further characterized by providing a double bearing for one end of the arbor,n a1nely, in a movement-plate and in the bridge affixed thereto.

1 claim:

1. In a clock-movement, the combination with the front and rear movement-plates thereof, of a bridge adapted to be applied in spaced relation to one of the-said plates,

and a removable springbarrel unit provided with a ratchet-wheel the said ratchetwheel adapted to have bearing in one of the said movement plates and also in the bridge affixed thereto.

2. In a clocleinovenient, the combination with the front and rear movement-plates thereof, one of the said plates being formed in its edge with a key-hole slot and the other plate being formed with a bearing-hole concentric with the circular inner end of the said slot; of a bridge adapted to be applied in spaced relation to the slottedplate and having a bearing-hole concentric with the circular inner end of the said slot; and a removable spring-barrel unit provided with a V ratchet-wheel having upon its. inner and outer faces bearing-hubs, of which the inner hub has bearing in the circular portion of the said slot, and the outer hub bearing in a concentric bearing-hole in the bridge.

3. In a clock-1novement, the combination with the front and rear movement-plates thereof,- the outer plate having a plurality of key-hole slots formed in its edge and the inner plate having a pluralitv of concentric bearing-holes, of a bridge adapted to be applied in spaced relation to the front 1noveinent-plateand having bearing holes concentric with the bearing-holes in the inner plate, and withfthe circular portions of the keyhole slots in the outer plate, and a plurality of removable spring-barrel unit-s provided with ratchet-wheels, each having an outer and an inner bearing-hub, the outer bearinghubs of the said wheels fitting into the bearing-holes in the bridge, and the inner bearing-hubs of the said wheels fitting into the circular portions of the key-hole slots in the front movement-plate.

In testimony whereof, I havesigned this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILSON E. PORTER. Witnesses VICTOR W. PHELPS, MALooLM P. Nionors. 

